Steely cold in Charlotte, forecasts for five days of rat-wet rain in Miami, newly-planted palms shriveling on the porches, bikinis in iminent danger of being tossed from suitcases to allow room for more smalti and perhaps the far more practical Gryphon Grinder, where can I find even the tiniest hint of spring on this 30th day of March, wholly bereft of bunny clouds and beckoning starflowers?

Marian Shapiro of Australia has one of the most dynamic and evocative uses of color of any artist I know. Field of Dreams, above, is one of the delicious mosaics that I yearn to crawl right into for a lazy picnic of honied strawberries, intertwined with clover and a doting lover.

To see more of Marian’s work, click here, and don’t miss her elfinly divine 3-D pieces.